SONY Corporation has declared an annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5,7 billion) in 2011, its fourth straight year of hemorrhaging money, and the worst in its 66-year corporate history. In spite of which, the company – which appointed a new president, Kazuo Hirai last month – is predicting return to profit by the end of 2012.

Which means they’re really optimistic about how that Spider-Man reboot is going to do in the box office. And I guess there’s some call to be optimistic when you bear in mind that they’d been expecting a loss of around $6,5 billion.

Sony points to factory damaged sustained by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, production disruption from flooding in Thailand, and “unfavourable” foreign exchange rates for its sustained losses.

The company suggests that their focus on emerging technologies, like the growing smartphone and tablet businesses, will reap benefits enough to get them profitable again by 2013.

Which is unfortunate, given that their smartphones and tablets are almost universally hated.

Hirai, the guy who ran Sony’s PlayStation department and their newly-appointed president, would be working a fistful of miracles just by keeping the company from going under in the next year, let alone returning it to profit.

[Source: AP]